A FAMILY who are desperate to get to the bedside of their sick father are still several thousand pounds short of what they need to make the journey to the USA.

Jon Nightingale said he and his twin bothers Luke and Ian have been overwhelmed at the £3,120 raised by friends and complete strangers who have reacted to an appeal set up by their father’s friend, Scott Kinsella and through a charity night last week organised by Julianne Kelly and Steve Byrnes.

The three all performed with Ian Nightingale, 54, a popular local musician who moved to Seattle with his second wife.

His sons were distraught to get news that he had suffered a massive heart attack which was followed by a stroke.

They have now learned that he is on a dialysis machine and doctors do not know how his body will react when he is removed from it.

Jon Nightingale, 21, is a part-time cleaner at the West Cumberland Hospital. His brothers, 18, are looking for work.

None of the three had passports and, in Jon’s words: “You save up for a trip to the United States. We haven’t had the chance to.”

He said when they got the news about their father all they wanted to do was be by his side.

“We did not think about fundraising and are very grateful to those who have helped. I have been told that there are others who are doing some collecting and fundraising.

“I don’t know much about it but we are so grateful.”

Mr Kinsella set a target of £10,000 on his crowd funding page for the three brothers.

The brothers have applied for passports which, alone, will set them back over £200.

They need the cost of three airfares wo Seattle and then face the cost of a hotel near the hospital in which there father is still a patient.

At one stage there was doubt whether they would see their father alive as he was given a 50/50 chance at best of surviving the heart attack.

Now he is improving physically but he has good and bad days, Jon told The Whitehaven News this week.

“His wife, Terry, knows about the fundraising and was really surprised. i don’t know if Dad knows though. I just hope we can get to see him as soon as we can.”

To help the brothers raise the money log on and visit the fundraising website at: https://www.gofundme.com